Oils and Fats. 



6 



[July, 1911. 



(b) Three 10 years old trees, avei'aged 

 2£ ozs. rubber each. 



St. Andrew- 

 Species, Castilloa guatemulensis. 



Belle Vue, Red Hills, tree aged about 

 24 years, girth 62 inches, 1st tapping 

 gave 1 lb. 9 ozs., 2nd tapping a month 

 later, gave 1 lb. 8 ozs.— Total 3 lb. 1 oz. 



C— Mr. L. Wates, 



Agricultural Instructor: for Portland 



and St. Thomas. 

 In Portland, 76 trees varying from 8 to 

 14 years have been tapped. The yields 

 have varied a good deal. One tree 14 

 years old and 65 inches girth, gave 25£ 

 ozs. of rubber at the first tapping. The 

 tree was tapped every month but after 

 the third tapping gave no latex. After 

 a rest of 4 months the tree gave a further 

 7 ozs. and two months later 5 ounces 

 more, making a total yield of 2 lb. 9 ozs. 

 rubber from this tree. 



Mr. Wates concludes from his experi- 

 ments that 3 or 4 tappings a year will be 

 the maximum desirable and that on 

 suitable soil in Portland, trees of ten 

 years should girth 45 inches and yield 

 from four to five ounces of rubber for 

 the first tapping. 



He considers from these observations 

 that a yield of 225 lb. of rubber per acre 

 per annum after the ninth year can be 

 reasonably expected from Castilloa 

 plantations in the Parish. 



111. TAPPING. 



The demonstrations of tapping on 

 some 7 years old trees at Hope showed 

 the great convenience and utility of the 

 new " Thompson tool " for tapping Cas- 

 tilloa trees, 



We can recommend this implement as 

 the best tool yet tested in Jamaica for 

 tapping Castilloa rubber trees. 



H. H. C. 



OILS AND FATS. 



CAMPHOR OIL. 



Semi-Annual Report of Schimmel & Co. 

 April, 1911. 



(Fritzsche Brothers.) 



During the past six months no note- 

 worthy alterations have occurred in the 

 Japanese camphor oil market. Only a 

 few large parcels have been brought for- 

 ward since we covered our requirements 

 for a long time ahead, and these have 

 mostly found buyers at full prices in 

 the United States. Light and heavy 

 camphor oil, the by-products of our 

 salrol manufacture, have enjoyed a very 

 active demand, because they have re- 

 cently been used chiefly as substitutes 

 for turpentine oil or in the manufacture 

 of turpentine substitutes, the price of 

 genuine turpentine oil having risen to a 

 figure never known before. We have 

 repeatedly been under the necessity of 

 advancing the prices of our oils, and the 

 fact that they still continue to be in 

 brisk request shows that for the present 

 there is no piospect whatever of any 

 decline in the quotations. Our special 

 quality light camphor oil, known as 

 " A," possesses about the following con- 

 stants : d 15 ° 0,860 to 0,870, b. p. 170 to 

 182°, flashpoint at 763 mm. press, about 

 53°. This quality has at intervals been 

 in such request that our works were 

 scarcely able to keep pace with the 

 demand. The working up of crude 

 camphor oil has attained so great an im- 



portance in our establishment that, 

 although our plant is on the largest 

 imaginable scale, we are only able to 

 keep up with orders by working night- 

 shifts. 



According to a Japanese source *, the 

 net profits of the Formosan Monopoly 

 Bureau have increased in the year 1909 

 to 2i million Yen (= over £250 000,) while 

 the results for 1910 are expected to be 

 still better. Camphor from Southern 

 China, of which the price at the time of 

 the Report (August 1910) was 140/-as 

 compared with 145/-for quality B and 

 140/ for quality BB of the Japanese 

 article, was in poor demand, while 

 apparently the synthetic article had dis- 

 appeared from the market. 



According to further reports in the 

 same paper a special commissioner of 

 the American firms interested in the 

 camphor trade, Mr. Anderson, has 

 personally entered a protest with 

 the Japanese Government against the 

 irregularity in the sales of refined cam- 

 phor to the United States. A journey 

 to Formosa, undertaken by Mr. Anderson 

 for the purpose of collecting infor- 

 mation, showed that a certain Japanese 

 firm which had a concession for the pre- 

 pai'ation of crude camphor only, was 

 unlawfully engaged in refining camphor. 

 This led the American to enter a fresh 

 protest with the Japanese Ministry of 

 Finance, accompanied by a threat of 



* Oriental Physician and Druggist, Yokohama 

 4 (1910), No. 36, p. 6. 



